Oracle Zaps $212m from from SAP

Oracle Zaps $212m from from SAP

Oracle wants SAP to pay it $212 million in interest on top of the $1.3 billion awarded to it last month by a jury in the companies' TomorrowNow lawsuit, court papers show.

Including the $120 million that SAP paid Oracle for its attorney fees, the additional money would bring SAP's total penalties in the case to $1.63 billion.

In papers filed on Friday at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, Oracle said it is "routine" for the plaintiff in a copyright case to be awarded "prejudgment interest."

SAP disagreed. "We don't believe that Oracle is entitled to any additional compensation beyond the final judgment in this case," an SAP spokesman said. The company has also said it may appeal the jury's verdict.

Oracle sued SAP in 2007 after it discovered SAP's TomorrowNow subsidiary had been downloading software and support materials illegally from an Oracle website.

SAP didn't contest the infringement, and on Nov. 24 a jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion in damages. The money was to cover the cost of a "hypothetical license," or the amount SAP would have had to pay if it had licensed the software legally.

Oracle is asking for interest on the money from the date the hypothetical license would have been signed: Jan. 19, 2005, the day SAP bought TomorrowNow.

Oracle made the request in its proposed final judgment, which also demands that SAP return any copyright Oracle material it may have within 30 days.

Oracle said it first asked for the prejudgment interest when it filed its original complaint. It said its damages expert calculated the figure based on the jury's damages award.

It's up to the judge now to decide whether to uphold the jury's damages and sign off on Oracle's proposed judgment. She is expected to decide in the coming weeks.